Happy Veterans Day! On this day when we thank our service men and women past and present for their service, this blog post is also going to thank them for their surveys!
Let me explain: As you know, no one loves war movies more than I do, but I recently got to wondering how similar my personal favorites might be to the picks of actual military veterans.
200 Veterans Choose Their Movie Favorites
So imagine my delight when I ran across a survey on About.com that answered that exact question. About.com surveyed more than 200 veterans from all branches of the service who had served in wars from as recently as Afghanistan and as far back as Korea.
Here, in reverse order, are the Top 10 war movies rated highest by real veterans. I might disagree with one or two rankings here and there (spoiler alert: I’d rank Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan higher) but on balance, I was happy to see that the vets in the survey went for the same blend of adrenaline-fueled entertainment, strong emotion, glimpses into history, patriotism and great battle scenes that I did. Enjoy!
#10 Apocalypse Now (1979)
Watch the trailer for Apocalypse Now here:
#9 Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
Watch the trailer for Heartbreak Ridge here:
#8 Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Watch the trailer for Full Metal Jacket here:
#7 The Hurt Locker (2008)
#6 We Were Soldiers (2002)
Watch the trailer for We Were Soldiers here:
#5 Platoon (1986)
Watch the trailer for Platoon here:
#4 Black Hawk Down (2001)
Watch the trailer for Black Hawk Down here:
#3 Lone Survivor (2013)
Watch the trailer for Lone Survivor here:
#2 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Watch the trailer for Saving Private Ryan here:
#1 American Sniper (2015)
Watch the trailer for American Sniper here: